The Fool, the Knight, and the Counselor

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores how Shakespeare imitates Paul’s style in three plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Pericles, Prince of Tyre; and The Winter’s Tale. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he draws on what may be called Paul’s rhetoric of admiratio in the Corinthian epistles to develop Bottom’s comic epiphany, delivered after waking from a night of confusion and metamorphosis in the woods outside of Athens. In Pericles, he imitates other aspects of Paul’s rhetoric of admiratio in Ephesians to shape Pericles’ speeches during a storm off the coast of Ephesus, including a prayer, a benediction, and a valediction. And in The Winter’s Tale, he draws on Paul’s accusatory rhetoric in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Galatians to develop Paulina’s angry rebukes of the jealous King Leontes at the Sicilian court. The chapter shows that Shakespeare uses these Pauline imitations to highlight various aspects of Paul’s character, including his foolishness and egomania in Midsummer; his chivalric, knightly qualities in Pericles; and his courage and zeal in Winter’s Tale. The chapter also shows that Shakespeare presents the Pauline characters and their stylistic practices as focal points for exploring larger issues related to Paul’s theology in the plays, including the problems of perception and the grounds of knowledge (Midsummer); the purpose of suffering and the means of enduring it (Pericles); and the dynamics of authority, interpretation, and belief in the face of the unknown (Winter’s Tale).